HDMI sound is sounds just fine. But whenever I am running something that inputs the R/W AV cables, I get some pretty good distortion (e.g., my Wii, an old VCR, old video camera). Sometimes it is bad enough to the point where I just avoid doing these activities.

I know it deals with the TV. I have an older receiver (late 90s...yes it's ancient =] ) and when I bypass the TV, I do not get the distortion.

Any clues? Does it deal with the electrical current in my home? Why don't I hear this distortion with sound over HDMI?

HDMI sound is sounds just fine. But whenever I am running something that inputs the R/W AV cables, I get some pretty good distortion (e.g., my Wii, an old VCR, old video camera). Sometimes it is bad enough to the point where I just avoid doing these activities.

I know it deals with the TV. I have an older receiver (late 90s...yes it's ancient =] ) and when I bypass the TV, I do not get the distortion.

Any clues?

Yes, there is a high probability that the TV set itself has experienced a partial failure.

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Does it deal with the electrical current in my home?

No.

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Why don't I hear this distortion with sound over HDMI?

I've actually seen similar failures in my own work. I encountered a HDTV in a homeless shelter where all of the analog inputs both audio and video (RCA, S-Video, component) were dead, while HDMI inputs and the internal receiver were still working.

Inside the TV set various signals are handled by various chips. If only one of these chips fails, which can happen spontaneously, then some of the inputs can fail, while others continue to work.

In my situation I know that the common characteristic of the internal receiver and HDMI is that they work in the digital domain, as do the internal audio and video circuits. The location of the failure was probably common to all of the analog inputs, whether audio or video.

Usually repair of older TVs is uneconomical and difficult because repair parts can be hard to find or every expensive.

The sounds I hear are crackles and pops, they increase in volume as I increase the volume.

What I have is a set of older Bose speakers (5.1) connected to an old receiver. 100% analog R/W connections in and out.

So, I have analog R/W from the TV to the receiver. Since I do not hear the crackles/pops when playing audio that is sourced the HDMI, but still out to the receiver via analog R/W, that may or may not help diagnose everything.

Additionally, I think we can rule the receiver out of this, b/c I hear the crackles and pops when playing over the TV speakers. It also happens regardless of which R/W AV inputs I am using.